I can handle choking down big multivitamin pills… if I have to.
But wouldn’t it be nice if there was a good tasting gummy alternative?
So I decided to dig in to see what I could find… and, well, the results are somewhat mixed.
Vitamin Payload
After looking through a slew of labels, I selected two multivitamin gummies that met my basic needs: Centrum MultiGummies for Men 50+, and Nature’s Way Alive Men’s Gummy.
When it comes to the actual vitamins, neither gummy is as complete as taking a pill would be.
Centrum MultiGummy – serving size is 2 gummies. They contain the following percentages of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended Daily Values (DV) as per listed on the label:
Vitamin A: 83% Vitamin C: 50% Vitamin D3: 125% Vitamin E: 120% Vitamin B6: 206% Folate: 67% | Vitamin B12: 1042% Biotin: 100% Pantothenic Acid: 60% Calcium: 6% Iodine: 53% Zinc: 45% Sodium: <2% |
Nature’s Way Alive Gummies – also has a serving size of 2 gummies. They contain the following FDA DV percentages as per listed on the label:
Vitamin A: 100% Vitamin C: 125% Vitamin D3: 100% Vitamin E: 100% Thiamin: 25% Riboflavin: 25% Niacin: 25% Vitamin B6: 253% Folate: 100% | Vitamin B12: 250% Biotin: 100% Pantothenic Acid: 100% Iodine: 100% Zinc: 33% Selenium:157% Sodium: 1% Lycopene (500mcg)* Inositol (40mcg)* (* DV not established) |
Taste, Smell, Texture and Appearance
Keeping in mind that the goal here is to have a better experience than swallowing a pill, let’s look at the appearance, smell, texture and taste of the gummies.
Centrum MultiGummy – when I opened the bottle of Centrum, it definitely smelled fruity.
Shaking out a handful, I was surprised at how brown they were.
Does appearance matter? Somewhat, when the issue is palatability. They do not look very appealing. Brown would be okay if they were chocolate flavor… but they aren’t.
Texture wise, the Centrum gummies were surprisingly rubbery. I expected them to be fairly soft and chewy, not tough. In fact with the brown color and rubbery texture, I checked to see if the ‘best by’ date had passed, but they were well within it.
I would describe the taste as a muted fruity flavor. Not bad, not great either… just okay.
Nature’s Way Alive Gummies – these are a mixture of red and dark red in appearance, a little more attractive than the Centrum gummies.
The texture of the Nature’s Way gummies is much softer and easier to chew. I found I actually like to suck on them just a little first and then chew them up.
My daughter described the smell of the Nature’s Way gummies as a lot like the Flintstones vitamins she had as a kid. I would agree, though I think there is a slightly medicine-like smell as well.
The flavor is fruity and sometimes pretty tart.
The Verdict
People have different philosophies and needs when it comes to the combination of vitamins in a multivitamin, and different preferences when it comes to textures and tastes.
Speaking only for myself, I find the combination of vitamins in the Nature’s Way Alive gummies, combined with their texture and taste, to be my men’s multivitamin gummy of choice, though I do wish they had a vitamin payload as strong as a multivitamin pill.
CP Savvy Consumer Tip – in researching this story, Consumer Press found many complaints from online shoppers saying their gummies had melted and clumped together from heat, apparently during shipping. To avoid this issue, consider purchasing your multivitamin gummies locally.
Have you tried these or other multivitamin gummies?
Please tell us about your experiences in our comments section!